Hampton Creek reportedly hired people to buy jars of its eggless mayo

CEO Josh Tetrick holds a species of yellow pea used to make Just Mayo, a plant-based mayonnaise, at Hampton Creek Foods in San Francisco.
Eric Risberg/AP
Eggless-mayo startup Hampton Creek secretly tasked employees to buy jars of its flagship Just Mayo product at grocery stores across the United States from 2014 to 2015, reports Bloomberg's Olivia Zaleski.

The secret buybacks started in early 2014, about eight months before Hampton Creek closed a $90 million round of venture capital financing. Bloomberg reviewed over 250 expense reports and reciepts provided by 5 former workers. Contractors were also employed to call stores and ask if they had any Just Mayo in stock.

"Make sure you are not wearing your HC gear when you go into Safeway. This is an undercover project," Caroline Love, now VP of Mission at the company, wrote in an e-mail to the Hampton Creek employees performing the buybacks, reports Bloomberg.

Hampton Creek CEO Josh Tetrick tells Bloomberg that the company spent $77,000, a 0.12% fraction of its sales, on these buybacks — and that they were primarily intended for quality control and to simulate the experience of buying the product in stores.